House speaker calls for special probe into Benghazi

May 2, 2014
|

This Sept, 14, 2012, file photo shows a Libyan military guard standing in front of one of the U.S. Consulate's burnt out buildings during the visit of President Mohammed el-Megarif, to the U.S. Consulate to express sympathy for the death of the American ambassador, Chris Stevens and his colleagues in the deadly attack on the Consulate. / Mohammad Hannon AP

by Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

by Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

House Speaker John Boehner said Friday that the House will vote to create a new select committee to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.

Such select committees have been held in the past for major investigations such as Watergate.

"Americans learned this week that the Obama administration is so intent on obstructing the truth about Benghazi that it is even willing to defy subpoenas issued by the standing committees of the People's House," he said.

"These revelations compel the House to take every possible action to ensure the American people have the truth about the terrorist attack on our consulate that killed four of our countrymen."

A senior Republican aide told the Associated Press that Boehner may choose Republican congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina to chair the select committee.

The move comes hours after a House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Consulate issued a subpoena to Secretary of State John Kerry to explain why his State Department withheld the contents of emails that may have shown a White House hand in shaping a false narrative about the attack.

The new emails "appears to offer conclusive evidence that your agency attempted to illegally withhold subpoenaed material," which is illegal and "may constitute a criminal offense," according the subpoena letter to Kerry from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Committee member Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., said Issa's subpoena was "not a responsible approach to congressional oversight," calling it an "unnecessary conflict for the sake of publicity" and "shockingly disrespectful" to Kerry.

The previously unreleased emails were given to the committee April 17, only after a federal court order in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by conservative watchdog Judicial Watch.

The emails showed Ben Rhodes, then-strategic communications adviser at the White House, "attempted to orchestrate a campaign to 'reinforce' President Obama and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being 'rooted in an internet video, and not a failure of policy,'" Issa wrote, citing the Rhodes' email and the Judicial Watch press release.

In one of the recently-released emails that had been withheld from Congress, White House official Ben Rhodes lists "goals" for then-U.N. ambassador Susan Rice to meet in explaining the attack and protests occurring across the Middle East that week to the American public.

The e-mail, sent to various officials including White House spokesman Jay Carney, said one goal was "to underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy." Another goal was "to reinforce the president and administration's strength and steadiness in dealing with difficult challenges."

Issa's subpoena comes a day after House Speaker John Boehner said Kerry should explain why the documents were not sent to Congress under its original Benghazi subpoena order.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the terror attack that happened seven weeks before the 1012 U.S. presidential election.